Secreto a Voces My column in The News of Mexico City In Hidalgo County, Texas, a SWAT unit waits for the Zetas to cross the border. In Douglas, Ariz., a U.S. Border Patrol Tactical unit mans the port of entry, waiting, watching. Word on the street is a cell of the Zetas blew into town across the line in Agua Prieta, a modern-day Pancho Villa attack in the making. In Saltillo, Coahuila, two migrant women tell a priest they were kidnapped along with six men. The women were repeatedly raped, the men robbed. The persecutors told the women they were Zetas, the women tell the priest. Up north, along the border, a gunbattle in Rio Bravo leaves three Zetas and two cops dead. Somebody leaks an FBI intel report to Milenio. The Zetas are considered a national security threat on both sides of the border, the report states. The group has engaged in kidnappings in the United States, taking prisoners in that country and bringing them down to Tamaulipas. The Zetas have established ties to the Maras and the Mexican Mafia; criminal investigations center on the Zetas in Dallas, Houston, Laredo. In Hermosillo, Sonora Gov. Eduardo Bours Castelo warns his constituents: Mexican military operations against the Zetas in other states will have an efecto cucaracha in Sonora as the cockroaches scatter to more peaceful lands. Everywhere I look, to the east and west of me, the new target of distaste and outrage is the Zetas, a narco-non-grata that has achieved a notoriety not seen along this border since the glory days of the Arellano Felix organization in Tijuana. From Brownsville to Nogales, everybody is jittery, waiting; the Zetas are on the move y les van ajustar las cuentas. The theme plays out all along the border, a mantra, the Zetas are coming. Meanwhile, the 800-pound gorilla in the room sits in Culiacán, Badiraguato, Hermosillo and Tijuana, ignored by everyone, from Mexico’s public security forces to the military, and, for the moment, it seems, the Americans. The Sinaloans, the most powerful cartel in the world, have become an acceptable partisan in the world of narco-politics. They’ve reigned over this region for so long, 20-plus years, that they’re now part of the symbiosis, a part of an environment that borders on the acceptable. While the Gulf Cartel is blamed for everything from raping migrant women to taking over cities and recruiting Americans to join their forces, the Sinaloans are ignored, and, in fact, tolerated. How did we get to this place? I asked an old friend of mine, sitting in his living room the other night. A Justice Department agent for more years than he cares to admit to, we sit by the fireplace, sipping cold Pacificos, the beer of Sinaloa. “These Zetas, it’s a brand,” he says. “They started with those Special Forces deserters, but how many of those elites do you think are left? Do you think they’d be hiring gringos out of Detroit if they were the same tight band of soldiers that started all this? Hell no.” But their reputation precedes them everywhere I can see. A fear penetrates every law enforcement sector that hears their name, a bogeyman like no other. Even Ramon Arellano, considered the crazy psychopath of the Arellano Felix family, could not mobilize entire SWAT units with the mere mention of his arrival. The situation in Tijuana right now is a fine example of this. Heriberto Lazcano, Tony Tormenta, these guys don’t even have to make a personal appearance to cause alarm. The Zetas have been on the move for more than six years now. They’ve laid siege to Nuevo Laredo, terrorizing the city until they gained its control. Information from the FBI has them buying blow from the FARC in Colombia. Yet, the Sinaloans have been in the life for far longer than the Gulf Cartel. They control, not port cities, but entire states, regional corridors from Jalisco to Sonora, from Arizona to California. Yet, at best, the Mexicans have only captured one of their members, La Reina, Sandra Avila Beltrán. The more the Mexicans pursue the Zetas, the more transparent the system makes itself: the Sinaloans are to be left alone while their competitors are eliminated. I don’t know why I’m surprised.

-- Michel Marizco

THE BORDER REPORT

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THE BORDER REPORT

Here's a story I wrote for the Culiacán weekly, Rio Doce.

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THE BORDER REPORT

More U.S. Border Patrol Tactical teams were brought in today to the Douglas Port of Entry and an SRT unit was set up at a camp outside of town, but judging from the whisperings trickling back to Tucson, it sounds like it may be an over-reaction by the U.S. customs agencies.

Still, a southbound inspection team was set up at the Douglas port, and while those are common at larger ports like Nogales and El Paso, they are rare for the smaller ports.

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THE BORDER REPORT

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